Volume 61, No. 2
60th Anniversary 1955 - 2015
Months of Tragic
Violence
Andrea Perrault
O
ver the past several
years, I’ve contributed
an article to our
newsletter about social and
political events that dominated
the news since we last
convened. This year, it seems
that the news is filled with the
tragic – mass shootings keep
occurring, and we seem
unable to counter the NRA in
finding a small measure of
change in public policy to
curtail gun violence. Police
killings of black men are
alarmingly reflective of serious
trouble in our society, as is
some seemingly resultant
unprovoked violence targeted
at police officers. Gun
violence has erupted in so
many communities, including
those in Massachusetts.
Daytime shootings have
disturbed what once were
seen as peaceful areas.
Matching gunfire with gunfire
cannot become the hallmark
of our society; ending such
violence and rebuilding a truly
civil society is essential. But
how? We look to our political
leaders to lead the charge.
But those who seek to be our
national leaders are not
inspiring confidence. With
Donald Trump leading in polls
for the Republican nomination,
I’m convinced that public
interest or willingness to
engage in serious political
dialogue has collapsed. It’s
likely that we’ve been
oversaturated in the past few
years with ads, mailings, and
phone calls by people who
want our votes, but who do
not propose policies that will
lead to positive solutions of
our problems. Name-calling
and scapegoating have
become the norm. Money
dominates the political scene.
No wonder the summer was
dominated by voices that are
new to the political arena; the
old voices have achieved
nothing. Yet the new voices
bring little substance to the
political dialogue.
November 2015
Book Review
Peter Singer’s
A Life You Can Save
Peter Denison
We must rely on other voices:
the Black Lives Matter
movement is important and
must work to effect change in
the criminal justice system
and in society at large.
Peter Singer is a well known
philosopher at Princeton
U n i v e r s i t y, w h o s e m o r a l
system is built on
Utilitarianism.
Starting out
with the proposition that all
human lives are of equal value
he holds that everyone whose
income is above the average
income of everybody should
give away all of that surplus to
help those who have less. He
quotes Jesus who told a rich
young man to sell all he had
and give it to the poor. He
does not quote Kant whose
categorical imperative states
that one should act in such a
way that one can will that that
act be a universal principle.
The problem that would arise
is if everybody did sell, who
would be left to buy the stuff?
Obviously chaos.
Singer
admits that even he does not
give away that much. (I have
read previously that he does
give away 20% of his income.)
Continued on page 3
Continued on page 3
Page 2!
November 2015
The Ethical Humanist
The Way It Is (?)
Marvin Miller
S
ocieties divide their
populations into classes
— groups of people
who have power, prestige,
privilege, and property to a
greater or lesser extent. Many
different bases have been,
and are, used for such
classification — caste, race,
sex, ancestry, birthplace,
religion, language, for a few
examples. People in different
classes regard and treat each
o t h e r d i f f e r e n t l y. S u c h
differences conflict with the
humanistic ethic, which calls
on us to regard and treat
others as our equals.
Sex is not usually thought of
as a class distinction, but in
most places in the world
women do not have all the
rights that men have, e.g.
rights to educational and
employment opportunities, to
political participation, and
even to decide what goes on
inside their own bodies. In
some places, female fetuses
are aborted because they are
female.
Racism assigns people with
particular physical
characteristics to inferior
status, placing them in a lower
class than those with different
appearances.
In the Bible, the stories of
Abraham and Jacob, and the
tenth commandment, refer to
a society in which some
people had servants and
others were servants.In
England some people have
Ethical
titles of nobility which give
them higher status than
others. The revolutionaries
who created our country
banned such titles in the
Constitution. But inequalities
of income and wealth have
created a society here that is
as much divided by class as is
Britain.
There are various ways of
classifying
people
economically. The Federal
government has an official
poverty line based on income,
calling people with less than a
specified income “poor" and
qualifying them for some antipoverty benefits. But, since
the 1930’s, the poverty line is
based on the cost of food. The
price of other necessities,
such as housing and health
care, has gone up much faster
than that of food, so people
who aren't "poor" can still be
homeless.
Politicians often talk about the
middle class. Conservatives
also often use the term "class
warfare", by which they mean
informing those who are not in
the ruling class that
class
warfare is being waged
against them by the ruling
class.
In one way of thinking about
class, the poor are those who
don't have enough purchasing
power for their current needs,
the middle class are those
who have enough for these
but are insecure about having
enough for their future needs,
and the rich are those who
have enough for current and
future needs and for whom
additional wealth means
greater power in competition
with others of their class.
That's why, for the rich, too
much is never enough.
People in Boston Ethical think
of ourselves as middle class.
But when we use this term, we
may subconsciously think of a
distribution like the normal
distribution, with most
individuals in the middle and
few at either end. The income
and wealth distributions are
very far from normal. Imagine
a chart of wealth distribution
on an eight inch wide sheet of
paper. Zero wealth is at the
left side of the sheet. Bill
Gates's wealth, which has
been estimated at eighty
billion dollars, is at the right
edge. Donald Trump's claimed
ten billion is one inch from the
left edge. A million dollars is
0.0001 inch from the left edge.
To those in the Gates, Walton,
or Koch class,the wealth of
almost everyone is
microscopic.
Purchasing power is political
power — the power to offer
campaign money to a
preferred candidate. A society
with grossly unequal political
power cannot honestly be
called democratic. Progress
toward democracy requires
reduction in disparities of
economic class.
The Ethical Humanist
Andrea Perrault continued
from page 1
Killings of black men in too
many communities across the
country are now witnessed by
bystanders’ cameras – the
realities of such violence can
no longer be secret.
The Boston Police
Department will adopt a pilot
program of putting cameras
on officers; the New York City
Police Department is
implementing new policies on
documenting all types of
violent confrontations.
Attorney General Loretta
Lynch is being vocal on behalf
of the U.S. Department of
Justice on local cases where
such violence is in question –
keeping the spotlight on these
cases is important.
As citizens, we must support
the efforts to confront violence
in all avenues. Our voices
must be heard in public
forums, in letters to
newspapers, and in social
media. Only by massive public
outcry will any change be
effected.
Peter Denison continued
from page 1
He then asks why people don't
give. Some reasons or
excuses are to question how
much one person's gift can
help. Many studies show that
if there is one child with a
name starving or in need of a
life saving operation, many
people are moved to give. An
article describing thousands of
children who need the same
November 2015
kind of help elicits a much
weaker response, and even
mentioning a second child
means less is given.
The
feeling seems to be that there
is so great a need that one's
donation is just a drop in the
bucket. Singer reasonably
points out the fallacy in that
argument. Whether one gives
for one named child, or for
someone whom one will never
know, there is one child who
will live, one set of parents
who will be grateful. Except
that the child's name is
unknown, there really is no
difference.
He also deals with the
question, will one's donation
really help the child, or will it
be wasted in inefficiency and/
or corruption? Singer takes
t h a t q u e s t i o n s e r i o u s l y.
Charities now have statistics
on how much of the donation
goes to expenses.
But a
charity has to do enough
research to know what is the
best way to help, and should
spend some money on
research. One organization
that he mentions is Oxfam. In
some Third World villages just
building simple toilets will
prevent a lot of pollution and
save many lives.
Many people comment on the
billions our government sends
in foreign aid, and those
countries often show no
benefit. But that aid is mainly
military and food aid often is
tied to buying food from our
country. Cheap grain coming
in to one of those countries
will undersell the local
farmers, putting them out of
business, and thus
Page !3
undermining the country's
economy.
An independent
NGO can do more good for
less money because it doesn't
have to be tied to our
c o u n t r y ' s f o r e i g n p o l i c y.
Singer's researches have
shown that even small
donations if everybody gave,
could solve the problems of
world hunger, poverty,
and
the diseases which no longer
affect developed countries.
How much should people
give? Singer has backed away
from the absolutism presented
in the opening paragraph. He
believes that a lower amount
of giving can accomplish his
goals. He comes up with a
graduated table similar to
those on our IRS forms.
Based on income he says
nothing on our first $50,000,
5% of earnings up to
$100,005. In condensed form
he writes"
"5% of the first
$148,000, 12% of the next
$235,000, 15% of the next
$217,000, 20% of the next
$1.3 million, 25% of the next
$8.8 million, and 33.33% of
the remainder." He speaks
approvingly of super rich men
like Bill Gates who give away
more than half of their
fortunes. Not all tax deductible
charities can count in the
above figures. Donations to
orchestras, colleges, libraries,
are nice, but they don't help
the hungry and sick. Nor do
more than a small percentage
of one’s contributions to one's
church or even to the Boston
Ethical Community. Singer's
challenge calls for a response
from all of us.
Page 4!
November 2015
Sunday Programs in November 2015
The Ethical Humanist
November 15
Faye George and Winston
Bolton
Tiziana Dearing,
Boston College School
of Social Work
When the Heart Speaks Its
Mind: a Poetry Reading &
Discussion
Building a New Cultural
Narrative for Social
Justice
The program will include
readings by Boston Ethical
Community members Faye
George from her book
World of Hard Use, poems
on the theme of work and workers; and by
Winston F. Bolton from his book Among Ruins.
Their poems offer the thoughtful reflections of
maturity on a life lived through a major part of
the last century on identity, love, war, aging, etc.
This talk is an
invitation to reflect on
the emergence of a
new
“cultural
narrative,” to use a term from New York Times
blogger Andrew Revkin, around poverty,
marginalization and social justice. Is there, in
fact, a new narrative emerging? Do we need it?
How can we combine a range of ethical, legal
and religious traditions in shaping this
narrative, and how can it advance social
change?
November 8
November 22
Michael Bleiweiss, Vice President, Boston
Ethical Community
John Miller, Professor of Economics,
Wheaton College
November 1
T h e Tr a n s - P a c i f i c
Parternsip
Colloquy
Colloquy provides an
opportunity for selfreflection
and
contemplation within a
nurturing, group
e n v i r o n m e n t .
Participants use
readings, music, and quiet sharing to reflect on
a selected theme.
It was created at the Ethical Humanist Society
of Long Island by Arthur Dobrin, Leader
Emeritus. Each Colloquy discussion centers on
a particular theme selected from Arthur
Dobrin’s book, Spelling God with Two O’s.
Groups consider such topics as awareness,
serenity, character, transitions and friendship.
We welcome back
Professor Miller, who will
give a presentation on
t h e Tr a n s = P a c i f i c
Partnership. This trade
agreement is hailed by
some as a landmark free
trade agreement that will bring prosperity to
all, and critiqued by others as a disaster in
terms of human rights and the environment.
November 29
Thanksgiving Breakfast
Join members and friends of the community as
we observe the Thanksgiving holiday together.
The Ethical Humanist
November 2015
Information About the Society
The Ethical Movement
Officers for 2014-2015
President
Brian King
(781) 581-6104
Vice President
Michael Bleiweiss
(978) 689-2874
Treasurer
Terry Goldzier
(617) 232-7704
Secretary
Andrea Perrault
(781) 593-5794
Other Board Members
Donald Aharonian, Peter Ames,
Cathy Haskell, Fred Hewett, Martha Werman
Archivist
Brian King
(781) 581-6104
Caring Committee Marline Miller
(617) 244-1471
Ethical Action
Michael Bleiweiss
(978) 689-2874
Music
Ingrid Kisliuk
Izabella Mazhbits
(617) 332-7109
(617) 731-1089
Newsletter
Fred Hewett
Martha Werman
(617) 945-0396
(617) 497-7888
Officiant
Katrina Scott
(617) 965-3067
Program Comm.
Andrea Perrault
(781) 593-5794
Publicity
John Lampert
(617) 923-8550
Fred Hewett
(617) 945-0396
Page !5
Ethical Culture is a humanistic religious and
educational movement working to create a
better world through ethical actions. We are
dedicated to the ideal that the highest value is
human worth and that our relationships to each
other are of greatest ethical concern. Our
commitment is to the worth and dignity of the
individual and to treating each human being so
as to bring out the best in him or her. Members
join together in ethical societies to assist each
other in developing ethical ideas and ideals...to
celebrate life’s joys and support each other
through life’s crises.
Membership
Finance Committee
Sunday Bulletin
Website
E-mail [email protected] for all print and e-mail
newsletter requests (subscriptions, changes and cancellations)
Website: bostonethical.org
Facebook: facebook.com/bostonethical
Twiter: twitter.com/bostonethical
Hospitality and Refreshment Schedule
Sunday attendees are asked to contribute some food item
to the refreshment table, according to the first letter of
their last name.
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Sunday, November 1
Sunday, November 8
Sunday, November 15
Sunday, November 22
A-F
G-K
L-R
S-Z
Page 6!
November 2015
The Ethical Humanist
~ Program Schedule for November 2015 ~
November 1
Faye George and Winston Bolton
A Poetry Reading and Discussion
November 8
Michael Bleiweiss, Boston Ethical Community
An Ethical Humanist Colloquy
November 15
Tiziana Dearing, Boston College School of Social Work
On Building a New “Cultural Narrative” for Social Justice
November 22
John Miller, Economics Professor, Wheaton College
The Trans-Pacific Partnership
November 29
Thanksgiving Breakfast
Join us to celebrate the holiday as a community
Sunday Meetings are held at 10:30 AM at 33 Garden St in Cambridge